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Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Catachan Jungle Fighters: Arnold & Sly Take on the WH 40K Universe

Along with the 1982 Kenner Toys catalog, I found some more Warhammer 40K miniatures in the recent unpacking of boxes. I remember acquiring these guys in maybe 2000 or so. The whole crew looks like members from Arnold's special forces unit from Predator.

This reminded me that much of the Warhammer 40K lore has its roots in 1980's sci-fi. Necrons? Terminator Endoskeletons. Tyranids? Aliens. Space Marines? Stormtroopers. Catachan Jungle Fighters? Rambo and Predator/Commando. All of these are a much appreciated homage to great sci-fi. In fact, there is even a Catachan character named Sly Marbo (Sly= Sylvester Stallone and Marbo=Rambo), as shown below.

I think I remember reading something in the fluff about the Deathworld planet, Catachan, having higher gravity than other planets and as a result the Catachans developed a larger amount of muscle mass. Looking at them now, they look a bit comical. I mean, these guys are so pumped, I wonder if they can twist around to shoot the Tau or swift Eldar. And their hands are bigger than their heads!!! But they still do look bad-ass. The Catachan below looks like he is flexing with a grenade and the one behind him looks strikingly similar to Arnold from T2.

Hans and Franz anyone?

Do any of you Warhammer 40K junkies remember the Catachan Jungle Fighter codex? I used to have it...

In any event, the Catachans are a little too 80's-early 90's to integrate with my Cadian and Scion Astra Militarum force and I ended up putting them along with Colonel Straken here and here on eBay. They just don't fit it in for some reason, appearing a bit too cartoony for Pops and Warhammer 40K circa 2017. I wonder if they'll get retconned out of the fluff like the non-Primaris Space Marines will at one point. Oh well. Thanks for the read and have a good evening.